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Best wishes and stout companions to all attending today’s solidarity rallies, and condolences to those kept away by inclement weather and the myriad other irritations of daily life.
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As a reminder, this week’s book discussion of NIXONLAND involves Chapters Eight and Nine, a mere thirty pages. Come join the conversation Sunday at 4pm EST, and still have plenty of time to get ready for Oscar-watching.
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And if you want something shorter to read over brunch, may I recommend Dahlia Lithwick’s Slate post on “The Case of the Poisoned Lover“?
Reader Interactions
26Comments
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liberal
_Wash Post_ front page story sez we might have dodged a bullet on guv shutdown. Haven’t read it yet though…
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
The shirtless Congressman who recently resigned over trolling for chicks on craiglist – well, Gawker just discovered he had posted ads looking for Tranny sex.
http://gawker.com/#!5769037/the-craigslist-congressman-and-the-crossdressing-prostitute
You guys in upstate new york are something else.
jwb
@liberal: It’s just two weeks. Still, it will be an interesting test as to whether Boehner has any control over his caucus at all.
liberal
Here’s the article on gov shutdown. Only a short extn but the authors claim it bodes well. Whatever.
mai naem
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff): He posted ads in the auto section wanting to have sex with a transmission? Okay, I don’t understand this at all.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@liberal:
Oh, oh. The teaparty ain’t gonna be happy over Boehner caving to the Kenyan President’s outline.
liberal
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff):
Would that more Rethuglicans busied themselves looking for tranny sex.
Besides, upstate NY this time of year…probably not much else to do.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
I gotta feeling Goldman Sachs investors must of made a bunch of calls to Boehner saying don’t fuck with GDP.
liberal
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff):
I don’t quite understand the political calculus. I realize that the Rethugs probably don’t want a repeat of Gingrich vs Clinton, but there’s no purely “algorithmic” way to assign blame for a shutdown given the division of government.
I guess the assumption/hope is that swing voters would blame the Rethugs because of an instinct that they’re overreaching.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@liberal: not only over reaching, but polls consistently and overwhelming say Obama has reached out to the other side and the GOP hasn’t.
If they had used different rhetoric, like “we look forward to working with the president, we are unafraid of compromise, we we put country first over party politics” they could have set up expectations and then broken from the table and falsely blamed the white house for being partisan. But they made such a big deal about “no compromises”, that they “would not negotiate with the president”, that they painted themselves into a corner.
phx
@Mike Kay – Thanks. We try very hard in upstate NY. And @liberal: from December to March trolling for trannies is pretty openly tolerated.
Boudica
Interesting take on King’s Speech vs Social Network for Oscar from Timothy Egan. In reading the part about Zuckerberg, I was reminded of Nixon.
What is it with these guys who work so hard to be recognized by “their betters” and end up such jerks? Do they become jerks from their resentment because they know they’re smarter than these people who won’t let them join their clubs, or are they jerks to start with and perhaps that has something to do with why they can’t join the clubs in the first place?
piratedan
for all of you Browncoats out there, this little nugget from the folks over at Screen Rant:
http://screenrant.com/nathan-fillion-buy-firefly-mcrid-102683/
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@Boudica: those elitists are really annoying.
Maybe you’ve seen the movie “A Civil Action” where the plaintiff’s attorney meets the CEO of WR Grace at the Harvard club in Manhattan and the CEO proceeds to put Travolta’s character down because he only went to Cornell.
El Cid
I guess the last shred of conservative love for Robert Gates is gone.
The right’s going to be even further pissed that the holy figure of Douglas MacArthur was invoked for such a hippie comment. So I’d guess.
Problem is, the right did examine Rumsfeld’s / Cheney’s / Bush Jr’s heads, and they loved everything they were doing. In the latter case, the right’s complaint was that Bush Jr. was far too timid and librul.
Up until Iraq really turned into the chaos it was once we destroyed their nation-state. I mean, until THE SURGE (hallowed be its name) fixed everything. Don’t CUT & RUN!
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@Boudica:
My experience is that most of the wealthy students are jerks. the brainiacs who come from the middle and lower classes can be jerks, because let’s admit it, a lot of brainiacs are socially awkward, which leads intentional and unintentional jerkyness, but students from the mid and lower classes are simply in awe at being in exclusive setting, and to busy trying to succeed to care (they have to be, they don’t have a trust fund to fall back on).
Cat Lady
@El Cid:
The army’s been all used up. When Gates says the same thing about the air force and navy, I’ll start looking for the Four Horsemen.
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
I found an awesome comment over at HP:
“The A&P in Cold Water Hollow is getting shut down because theres a Sams Club opened down in Starkeville. Its communnism no matter how you want to see it. Obama not making it any better with his buddys at Acorn “
El Cid
@Cat Lady: I don’t think that will happen, because the notion would not be that air and sea forces would as now be bound to an ongoing occupation — wait, I’m sorry, democracy building effort — but do their routine fire & forget. Particularly as drones become more like fighter planes in their attack ability, and more like tiny R/C aircraft (I’m not betting on the itty bitty ones) for surveillance.
El Cid
Uh oh. Looks like big banks are going to be slapped with another sternly worded letter.
It’s really worth hoping that not only would fines / settlement be agreed to, but actually enforced so as to be paid.
I’m sure another screaming session about how Obama is anti-bidness and doesn’t understand how our brilliant bidness leaders are unable to act with the brilliantness they need with such an insult from our President.
Wilson Heath
Any suggestions on a good blogging platform to start a little word heap on? Is it FYWP or are there better ideas?
Svensker
Annie Laurie, love the vid, especially the kids at the beginning nervously looking to see whether they are supposed to start yet. It took me a while to realize that the crumpled up biscuit on their shirts was the white cockade… (me Sco-ish ancestor would be whurrrrrling).
burnspbesq
in this morning’s times, the estimable Joe Nocera explains the lack of criminal prosecutions of senior financial sector executives. Interesting counterpoint to Taibbi’s latest rant.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/business/economy/26nocera.html?hp
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@burnspbesq: Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown.
Alison
@El Cid: I saw the Gates statement yesterday and was happy he said it. Of course, all I could picture was Wallace Shawn.
James E Powell
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff):
As soon as any person of any means or background decides that income and status are the most important things, that person becomes an asshole.